Eye Of The Enemy
by sinisteruto
Summary: In which Naruto is transported to the past only to awaken inside of Uchiha Obito's body rather than his own. How will this single event change the history and future of the elemental nations, will Naruto be able to stop the end of the world this time around? Naru/Guren/Fu
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any other series that I might use for inspiration.

_**A New Beginning**_

_I am Uzumaki Naruto, or at least, that's who I was. I am now my alter ego and arch nemesis, Uchiha Obito. Who would have thought that I would find myself in such a predicament? _

_I was literally the last shinobi from the allied nations alive, fighting for god knows what now that everyone was dead, against Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Obito. It was a losing battle, Obito was the Juubi jinchuuriki and Madara was a ridiculously powerful shinobi, not to mention immortal thanks to the edo tensei._

_I was holding my own, but even I could tell that it was only a matter of time, and time alone before I was completely overwhelmed. Madara was calm and collected, he was neither in a rush nor was he concerned at all by my power and will, he knew that I could only delay the inevitable, he knew that I couldn't stop it. Obito on the other hand had been getting more and more restless and impatient since the war started. And while he was, as the juubi jinchuuriki, infinitely more powerful than he ever was before, he was still inexperienced when it came to using the sage's power._

_He'd been so reliant on his mangyeko sharingan in the past, it must have really bothered him that he could not use kamui anymore. That's why I focused most of my taunts and physical attacks on him. I wanted to push him into a corner, and I did exactly that. His weakness was sage energy, and, with my ability to access all of Kurama's power and combination with sage mode, I was able to make my attacks infinitely stronger than they'd ever been. Eventually, I was able to find a clear opening to kill him, and I took it without hesitation. Madara didn't seem to be trying very hard to stop me, I found that to be very suspicious, but I had no time to ponder on that too much, this was a make or break opportunity and I knew I might not get another one again._

_Obito was desperate, he was about to die after all. I could have even sworn that I saw his life flash in front of his eyes, yeah, that's not how it's supposed to be, but that's how it went down nonetheless. However, I never expected Obito to do what he did next in order to save his life, but in hindsight, I guess it could be something I would have done too._

_He had only two choices, take the blow and die, or risk using a very distabilised kamui thanks to the presence of the juubi inside of him. Needless to say, he took the latter option, and all hell broke loose...well not really, but something bad happened to us. I'm not really sure I can explain what happened, but between the juubi's ambient energy, my sage energy, Kurama's energy, and the distorted kamui, we must have broken the space-time continum and ended up in an alernate reality._

_I'm not sure how long we were there, wherever it is that we were, but it felt like infinity. We carried on fighting, and fighting, and fighting, and eventually, we realized how pointless it was as no-one was dying, it was almost like time was just repeating itself in this dimension. So eventually, we begrudgingly formed a truce, after all, what was the victor going to do anyway? We were in the middle of nowhere, caught in a stupid space-time continum with no other humans inside, victory would be even worse than the fighting, cause whoever won would be left all alone._

_It took time, but eventually, we started talking, opening up to each other bit by bit. Obito confided in me, as I did in him. Eventually, we realised just how similar we were to each other, and also just how different we were to each other, but eventually, we were able to come and meet each other on common ground. He changed me alot during our conversations, as I did him, but we both knew that we would simply go crazy if we stayed like this for even one more day._

_Obito came up with an idea, he wanted to use izanagi in cohesion with his kamui in order to change our current reality by transporting me back to our world, basically, the bastard wanted to try out a new and dangerous jutsu on me. Nevertheless, I was desperate, we were desperate. I wanted to get out of there, plus, his reasoning made enough sense for me to give it a try._

_Using chakra from the juubi, Obito would use an overpowered izanagi in order to rewrite this reality, creating a space-time tunnel sorts through the fabric of this dimension, or a doorway out of this enclosed space. Than, he would use kamui, a juubi empowered kamui in order to teleport me back to our original plane where I would face Madara again. _

_I wanted Obito to come with me, I didn't understand why the hell he was choosing to remain behind. But, according to him, even with the juubi, using a jutsu of that magnitude would kill him. _

_When I found out, I refused to go through with the plan. Obito may have done alot of shit and killed alot of people, some not so innocent, some innocent, and some neutral, many of which were dear to me. But despite all that, we'd become close friends in the time that we spent together in there, I would even say we were like brothers now. I'd rather rot here for eternity than to leave him behind._

_However, the bastard expected my reaction, he gave me no choice in the matter and transported me anyway. Only thing is, he miscalculated, the bastard! Or maybe he planned this all along, I dunno, I'm not really certain either, but I didn't go back to my reality, I ended up in an alternate world where I am trapped in that prick's body, bastard probably laughing his ass off at me now, wherever he is. _

_Sad thing is, I awakened right at the moment where the fool was about to declare his intention to hand over one of his eyes to Kakashi as a jonin promotion/goodbye present. Haaaah! Like hell I was going to do that, I've secretly always wanted myself a pair of those cursed yet wonderful and cool eyes, or any doujutsu for tha matter. They all looked cool, and the benefits were even cooler, now that I had em, I wasn't going to hand them over so easily, besides, I already know that Kakashi will fail to use the eye for it's intended purpose, since Rin ended up dying anyway, even worse, by his own hand._

_So I held on to it, said my goodbye speeches, and and waited for the rocks to come crashing down on me. My regrets, my hatred, and my pain at having to die so soon after coming back to life so to speak was the fuel that activated my mangyeko sharingan. I immediately knew what was happening and I knew what I had to do. _

_Obito had showed me a play by play of his whole life with a sharingan illusion during our time in what I now deem as 'no man's land'. So I knew that if I made myself intangible, I would end up in that prick Madara's lair and he would merge me with Zetsu and turn me into his puppet. So I had to teleport away from there immediately. Luckily, I now knew some Uzumaki clan hideouts from my time as the Rokudaime Hokage and immediately visualized exactly where I wanted to go._

_In my preparations for the war, I had researched my family and clan extensively, and in my time with Obito, had learned everything there was to know about the Uchiha clan and all the other clans of the elemental nations. That guy really was a treasure of knowledge. In any case, during my own research about the Uzumaki clan, I had learned and mastered our yin-yang healing ability, an ability even superior to Tsunade's sozo saisei and byakugo no jutsu. _

_Whereas Tsunade created new cells through rapid mototic regeneration, in other words, rapid cell devision, causing rapid aging and shortening of the life-span as a side effect, our clan's kekkei genkei allowed us to use the creation of all things in order to simply create new cells with our chakra, which meant that we could regenerate with none of the side effects that usually come with rapid regeneration._

_Being that I was now in the body of an Uchiha, I wasn't certain that this jutsu would work, it was a major risk to even try. However, to my great surprise, it did! It actually worked. As a result, I decided to stay in my hideout for an extra three months. I needed to run some tests, figure out why this was happening. That's when I was able to confirm that Obito had intentionally tranfered me to this reality, the bastard didn't just transport me to an alternate reality, and he didn't just put my soul into his body, which he probably did with his rinnegan's human or outer path, no, he also somehow merged our bodies, or created a new body that, while it looked exactly like his, housed both our dna._

_This body was part Uzumaki and part Uchiha. I can't help but wonder why Obito would go to such great lengths to do something like this, is it just symbolic of our relationship, or was there another reason for doing this? Did he leave me a mission to complete? Is there something specific that he wants me to do, or is he preparing me for what's to come? Well, I didn't really know the answer, nor do I know it now._

_Anyway, I didn't just spend three months researching my dna and pondering on what Obito wanted me to do. I've never confined myself to being anyone's puppet, okay, maybe I have unintentionally been a puppet for most of my life, purely because of my ignorance, but I've never willingly accepted such a role. I had accepted that I am now going to have to be Uchiha Obito, but I was going to forge my own path. _

_I spent the whole of the three months re-learning everything that I had learned in my former life, as usual abusing the shadow clone training method to accelerate my progress. I no longer had Kurama, but I'm still an Uzumaki apparently, my chakra reserve and potency is still ridiculous, and my durability unmatched. With the Uchiha dna and the sharingan, comes the strong chakra and chakra control among many other benifits. My potential is limitless. _

_In the three months I spent of intense training, I managed to master kamui, the short range version from my right eye, the long range kamui from my left eye, and the third power, the intangibility that comes from my awakening the mangyeko sharingan on both of my eyes. I don't need to transplant my brother, mother's, father's, or cousin's eyes to get the eternal manyeko sharingan, that is because of my Uzumaki dna that negates the blindness and the side effects of using the mangyeko sharingan, after all, senju and uchiha is equal to the sage of the six paths, or at the very least, an imitation of him._

_Nevertheless, it turns out that Obito has an affinity for earth and fire, which I have duely mastered, but because Obito fused our dna with his creation of all things, I also have the wind affinity that I had before, which might I add, has also been re-mastered._

_I've also literally trained my body to the ground. My sensei is Namikaze Minato after all, I'm gonna need a lot of movement and reflex speed to keep up with him, and body strength, despite my intangibility, is not something I want to neglect. Progress has been smooth, my memories of my old self have certainly helped build a type of false muscle memory, that has caused a speed up of my progress. _

_I'm ready to return and partake in the war now. I'm ready to become a war legend. I need to earn that respect so that I can influence both clan and village policy. Also, I need this war experience to prepare for Madara. I realize that now, no matter how strong I became, the guy was always a step ahead of me, and that was due largely to his insane war experience, having grown up during the clan wars era. _

_I was hoping to awaken the rinnegan in the three months before I return to Konoha, but that's a little trickier than I thought. I have the blood of the senju from my Uzumaki heritage, and the blood of the Uchiha, so in theory, this should be simple and straight forward, but I've had a little trouble with that, it seems that this is going to be like that time that I tried baking. It's clear that simply having the ingredients to bake a cake doesn't automatically mean that you have or can even make a cake. You need to set the conditions to get the cake, the right fire or oven temperature, the right measurements for the ingredients, and the neccessary patience and due care. I'm guessing the oven will be the battlefield in the third shinobi war, after all, Uchiha powers are best awakened and honed on the battlefield._

_Anyway, I'm arriving at the gates now, my return is going to cause quite a stir now. Still, the scar tissue on my right side of the face, which is due to the fact that I allowed that part to heal naturally as it would on a normal human, for pretence sake, and my sharingan, my in depth knowledge of Obito's life and my appearance should be enough to convince everyone of my identity._

"Good afternoon, Hizashi-dono. Uchiha Obito, reporting back." Naruto, now known as Uchiha Obito reported with his three tamoe sharingan activated, now wearing black shinobi pants with white bandages wrapped around the ankles, black shinobi sandals, and a black, short sleeved shirt with a turtle-necked collar and the Uchiha emblem at the back.

"Really now...?" Hizashi trailed off with a knowing smile, asking himself how stupid this guy thought that they were.

_'A Hyuga heir as a gate guard, that is somewhat surprising, although I guess it makes sense given our current war situation. Now is the time to excercise caution and vigilance.' _Obito thought appreciatively.

"I understand that this might seem quite unbelievable. You probably suspect me of being an imposter, you'd be an complete dunce otherwise. But the good thing is that you possess the all-seeing eyes of the Hyuga clan, if you activate your byakugan, you will be able to see that I am speaking nothing but the truth, here, also take a look at my ninja registration license for confirmation." Obito replied with an 'uncharacteristic' professional tone, waiting patiently as Hyuga Hizashi activated his byakugan and indeed, with only a small and brief widening of the eyes as a show of emotion, confirmed everything that Naruto said.

"Well, your information checks out, but that doesn't mean that we can trust you just yet. I will call for an A.N.B.U. four man cell to escort you to the Hokage's office. You have alot of explaining to do, so does your sensei and your teammates." Hizashi replied, locking his deadly and intimidating doujutu with the sinister and malicious looking three tamoe sharingan of the 12 year old chunin.

"Sounds reasonable enough to me." Obito replied, moving to the side and waiting patiently for his A.N.B.U entourage, under the watchful eye of the heir of the Hyuga branch house.

**30 minutes later...**

The silence in the room was deafening. The sandaime hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen sat at his chair with a stare that could probably and literally melt even a seasoned shinobi. Next to him, with similar expressions, stood Morino Ibiki, the yellow flash Namikaze Minato, Jiraiya of the Sannin, and young 12 year old Jonin, Hatake Kakashi. The only person with a different expression was Nohara Rin, who was tightly holding on to Kakashi's left arm with a look that seemed to Obito like a combination of fear, confusion, surprise, shock, and even happiness and excitement, which was an amazing feat in itself he thought, for his sharingan to see so many emotions at the same time on one person.

"So you say you are Uchiha Obito...? Hiruzen asked patronizingly.

"An irrefutable and unbending fact, confirmed with Hyuga Hizashi-dono's byakugan at the main gate, by my appearance, and by my sharingan. So yes, I am indeed Uchiha Obito." Naruto replied unflinchingly.

"You may look like him, but are you really him? For all we know, someone else could be walking through your mind right now." The sandaime suggested, not knowing just how right he was, or at least, how close to the real truth he actually was.

_'So this is what the old man looked and sounded like in his younger days. I must say, he looks quite a tad bit more credible than he did when I knew him.' _Obito thought casually.

"War can change a person, but even more than that, almost dying and losing everyone and everything precious to you can really change a person. It can make even a foolish and naive child grow up and become a man. The foolish and incompetent Obito that you once knew died at the Kanabi Bridge under those boulders, this is the new Uchiha Obito, Hokage-sama." Obito replied smoothly.

"I see...so, please do tell, if you really are Obito, than tell me who your teammates are, and who your sensei is." Hiruzen ordered.

"No offense, Hokage-sama, but that is a really really really stupid question. Even if I was an imposter, I would make sure I at least know that about the guy I was mascarading as. I would have found out that he was the blacksheep of the Uchiha clan, a student to the yellow flash of Konoha, a teammate to the legendary Hatake Sakumo's son, a Konoha prodigy, Hatake Kakashi. And last but not least, a teammate to a girl for whom his heart was worn on a sleeve for, Nohara Rin. It's common sense for me to know that, asking me that question is not going to confirm or disclaim your suspisions." Obito answered with a neutral tone and expression, as if he hadn't just bluntly insulted the hokage, shocking everyone with his blatant disrespect for the professor.

"You brat! Who do you think it is that you're talking to..."

"That's alright Jiraiya, it's fine."

"But sensei..."

"I said let it go!" Hiruzen said with a small wave of killing intent, causing Rin, Kakashi, and even Ibiki to freeze in place, and Jiraiya to shut up instantly, all the while Obito just standing there unflinchingly.

_'Sorry old man, but I have faced far worse than you. Madara, Obito, Pein the God Of Ame, the Juubi. Compared to that, this is absolutely nothing.' _Naruto thought with a mental roll of the eyes.

"I have a question for you, if you've been alive all this time, why didn't you come back sooner, what have you been doing for the last three months? Or was this another one of your stunts, to cause chaos and confusion in a feeble attempt to get recognition?" Kakashi asked with blunt honesty and cruelty, not mincing his words or holding anything back.

"I was starting to wonder when you became mute, however, it seems you still retain the ability to excercise your foul mouthed toungue." Obito retorted with a jibe of his own.

"Obito! You don't have to be so cruel, Kakashi-kun is just concerned about you! And how many times must I tell you to stop hiding, if you feel pain or anger at us for abandoning you, even if unintentionally, than just say so god damnit so that we can make it up to you!" Rin shouted with an accusing finger.

"Hn, whatever the case may be, his deduction skills are incredibly overated if he can't even discern just by looking at me what I've been doing for the past three months, after all, didn't I only have a two tamoe sharingan the last time the two of you saw me?" Obito asked retorically.

"Who said I didn't notice that?" Kakashi asked with a narrowed eyes.

_'So he had a new eye transplanted into hIs left eye socket huh, I don't know why I'm so surprised really, it's not like doujutsu are the only transplantable eyes, that actually wouldn't make sense.' _Naruto thought to himself.

"Than don't ask me the name of the restuarant when there's big sign wriiten in bright red and black on the walls." Obito replied, figuratively refering to the red and black colour of his pupil and tamoe respectively, causing the normally stoic Kakashi to fight the urge to grit his teeth in frustration.

"By the way, are the two of you together now?" Obito asked curiously.

"W-what the fuck, what does that have to do with anything you baka!" Rin exclaimed indignantly, a small hue of red forming on each of her cheeks, although somewhat jaded by the markings on her cheeks.

"I'm asking because I know that you love Kakashi, and I know that he has rejected your advances in the past out of misplaced respect and concern for me and my feelings. I just wanted him to know that if he wants to be with you, than it's fine by me. I've done alot of growing up over the last three months, I'm not a child anymore. I've got alot of important things that I want to focus on now, like my clan, the war, and the village. Love and dating are the last things on my mind right now. Basically, what I'm saying is, I've moved on." Obito said with finality.

_'Sorry Obito, but your obsession with this girl ultimately caused alot of death and pain for the rest of world, in fact, one could even say that the whole world was destroyed because of your infatuation with this girl. And that...is just one of the few things that I intend to change around here.'_

"O-Obito-kun..." Rin trailed off with a shocked and hurt expression.

She was young yes, she was inexperienced in the matters of love, yes, but she was no fool. Obito may have sugar coated it and made some excuses about the war and his clan, but she could read between the lines. Obito had been in love with her, whereas she was in love with Kakashi, who had rejected her because of Obito, and now, Obito was basically saying that he no longer desired her affection, nor did he have those kind of feelings for her anymore. She'd always known that Obito had the hots for her, but she hadn't even thought three times about ignoring his feelings and focussing on her own for Kakashi. She'd just always thought Obito would outgrow his childish crush on her and move on, she just didn't know how much it would hurt when it actually happened. This was turning out to be the worst reunion in the hystory of the elemental nations.

"Obito, there's no doubt in my mind that you really are Obito, I don't need a doujutsu or an interogation to know that, my eyes are good enough for that. But before anything else, I just want to tell you how happy I am that you're alive. And I want to apologise for being such a horrible sensei and friend to you. I promise to try my best to become better, to be a better friend, and a better mentor to you. That is a promise of a lifetime, if you could please give me a second chance." Minato pleaded as he walked until he was standing right in front of the young Uchiha before falling smack on his knees with his head on the floor, much to everyone's surprise, even Obito, although, said surprise only flashed briefly on his facial features.

_'Why are they so easily convinced that I really am Obito? Are he and I really that similar to each other?' _Naruto pondered.

"I don't need a mentor, I have decided to learn everything the hard way and on my own, until further notice. But we are teammates and we have to at least be civil with each other, so I will accept your hand in friendship." Obito said with his hand stretched out, pulling the Sandaime's successor up and drawing him into a firm handshake.

"That sounds great! It's more than I deserve actually. Thank you for giving me a second chance, Obito!" Minato said with a goofy smile, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"Don't mention it." Obito replied off handedly.

_'Dad, I've always wanted to have you in my life, you and mom both, life is so cruel, I get a chance to live in a world where both you and mom are alive, yet I still have to live as an orphan, damn!' _Naruto thought with an aching heart.

_'He's changed so much, but it's not much of a surprise really given what he must have been through over the last three months.' _Minato thought to himself, both worried for and at the same time proud of his student for enduring and surviving such a challange.

"So...are we done here? Cause I'd really like to go and re-introduce myself to the clan, especially now that I have a fully mature sharingan. I'd really like to stick it up to all of the people that called me a failure and a disgrace to the clan." Obito said with a determined expression.

_'What I really want to do now is to have a little word with Uchiha Kagami, the current clan head. But Obito was an embarrassment to the clan because of his many screw-ups and labeled a blacksheep because he took so long to activate his sharingan compared to his peers. It was a very sensitive issue with him. Even if he had changed, I think they'd expect him...me...to harbour some kind of resentment for that, so I'll just use that as an excuse for wanting to hurry back to the clan compound.' _Naruto thought.

"I stationed one of my operatives right outside your clan compound to wait for my signal. We didn't want to say anything yet about your return in case you were not who you say you are. I hope you understand why I had to do this, Obito-kun." Hiruzen said with a warm grandfatherly tone.

"So than, Kagami-sama will be informed of my return by the time I arrive at the compound...if I travel with a slow enough pace?" Obito asked retorically, already having gleaned the correct answer to his question himself.

"Yes, that is how it is. I'm sure Kagami-dono will be very pleased to hear about your return. He has recently been concerned with the losses your clan has suffered in the war, it will please him considerably to know that one of his own, who was thought to be dead, has returned alive." Hiruzen said with a small smile, only to receive a blank stare in return from the young Uchiha.

_'Tobirama-dono said that Uchiha Kagami had been different from the other Uchiha's from what I heard, that he had the will of fire that Hashirama passed on throughout the generations. However, judging from my new memories I have from Obito, I can tell that he is still an Uchiha with pride and a very militant mindset which was probably passed on by Tobirama-dono himself. He won't be happy that the one who has returned is actually the supposed incompetent liability of the clan.' _Obito thought to himself.

_'Oh well, nothing a little private conversation can't change.' _Obito thought with a mental smirk.

"Well, it was nice seeing you all again, I'll report for duty first thing tommorrow morning. By your leave, Hokage-sama." Obito said, not waiting for the Hokage's acknowledgement as he turned around and swiftly exited the office.

"Well, what do you think, Ibiki?" Hiruzen asked curiously.

"He is definitely hiding something, something very big. However, it is probably something personal that he wants to keep to himself, or he has simply become reclusive and keeps to himself in order to deal with the trauma. It is clear that he is still loyal to his clan and retains a strong loyalty to the village by extention as well, he does have alot of secrets that I don't think he will share willingly though." Ibiki, the youngest ever head of intelligence and interogation unit, explained.

"I see..." Hiruzen trailed off thoughtfully.

"That's it? We're just going to let him come back just like that? What about a proper interogation, what about utilising the Yamanaka clan's special abilities to find out exactly what he is hiding? What about assigning an A.N.B.U tail to follow him around inconspiciously to see what he gets up to when no one is watching? What about proper intelligence and information gathering, sensei? Are you getting soft in your old age?" Jiraiya asked angrily.

"Obito-kun loves the village more than anyone else I know of! He would never betray Konoha! His dream is to one day become the best Hokage in the history of Konoha! I don't care who you think you are, I won't let you insult Obito-kun like that when you don't even know him!" Rin shouted angrily.

"This Obito is different from the Obito that you once knew young lady...!"

"Be that as it may, I still have to agree with Rin on this one. Despite our many differences, I know better than anyone out there that Obito would never betray the village...it's impossible!" Kakashi replied with an intense expression, eyes narrowed at the toad sage threateningly, almost daring him to disagree with him.

"Like I said..."

"Jiraiya-sensei...!" Minato cut in hastily.

"I understand your concerns, but I can't allow even you to speak so ill about one of my precious students without evidence or justification. Having said that, I understand that this is a delicate matter and that me and my two students here are too close to the situation to make any real objective conclusions. Still, everything you suggested that be done is in complete violation of clan previledge, if we were to be caught doing such a thing, it would have a negative impact on the relationship between not just the Uchiha clan and the village, but all of Konoha's clans and the village. That is a gamble we absolutely cannot afford to take." Minato said with a serious tone.

"Than what are you suggesting we do, Minato-san?" Ibiki asked curiously.

"Let me and my students handle the Obito situation. That's all you can do."

"But didn't you just say that you were too close to the situation to make an objective analysis?" Ibiki asked incredulously.

"Yes I did, but maybe being too close to the suspect is what is required to get the best results in this case. If, hypothetically speaking, Obito was no longer loyal to Konoha, he would still play act for the sake of public appearances and to keep suspision away from himself. Someone who doesn't know Obito as well as we do, in such a scenario, wouldn't be able to detect any discripencies in Obito's behaviour because they didn't know him that well to begin with. However, someone who knows him as well as we do would not miss such a thing. Also, his bond with us, as his teammates might force him to reconsider his hypothetical decision to desert or betray the leaf village. I think it would be better if we proceeded in this vain, but of course, the final ruling lies on you, Hokage-sama." Minato said, staring at the Hokage expectantly as he waited for the professor's response.

"Hmmmm...well, you are my successor, and I plan to step down at the end of the month. The burden of making such high profile decisions will fall on your shoulders very soon. With that in mind, I will allow you to proceed as you see fit, Minato-kun" Hiruzen replied with serious expression.

"Well than, you all heard it, directly from Hokage-sama's lips. Kakashi, Rin, we will have to keep our eyes and ears open with anything concerning Obito over the next couple of years, however, please do not treat him like a convict, don't even treat him like a suspect. Be the best friends and teammates that you can be to him and love him with all your hearts as a brother, as will I, while keeping an open eye and ear. Do you both understand?" Minato asked with a grave tone.

"Hai, Minato-sensei!" the duo replied.

_'Hmmmm...Sensei and Minato are acting very naive for people of the title of Kage, clearly I'm going to have to take this matter into my own hands. I don't think this Uchiha is as trustworthy as everyone believes that he is.' _Jiraiya thought skeptically.

**Two Hours Later...**

"I see, so let me get this straight, you awakened the sharingan, two tamoe on your right eye and one on your left eye, shortly before you and Hatake Sakumo's son rescued Nohara Rin. During your escape, the cave collapsed due to explosion tags planted by the enemy in and around the cave and, in a successful attempt to rescue Hatake Kakashi, half of your body was crushed by boulders from the collapsing structure. Your teammates were forced to leave you behind but you somehow survived the incident and spent the next three months recovering and honing your skills in one of the Uchiha clan secret hideouts from the clan wars. When you were certain that you had awakened and mastered all three tamoe of your mangyeko sharingan, you decided to return to Konoha and the clan. Did I get everything right, Obito?" Uchiha Kagami, the 54 year old head of the Uchiha clan, asked with a calm exterior.

"Hai, Kagami-sama!" Obito replied passively, kneeling down on both of his knees in a submissive position in front of the standing clan head.

If he had to be honest, Obito would say that he was really surprised by the reception that he received when he returned. He never expected to find the whole Uchiha clan standing right outside the compound main gates waiting for him, and he certainly never expected the warm reception that he was granted on his return. Everyone was friendly with him and everyone congratulated him on his achievement, after all, only eight year old Uchiha Shishui, Kagami-sama's last born and only living son, had awakened all three tamoe of his sharingan out of Obito's age group and below, not counting Obito himself of course.

_'The sharingan is definitely the pride of this clan, if even I can gain such a profound admiration and popularity from being the black sheep of the clan not too long ago, all because of awakening all three tamoe at such a young age.' _Obito thought to himself before being broken out of his thoughts by Kagami's deep and composed voice.

"So than, let me ask you this again, what kind of fool do you take me for, Obito...?" Kagami asked with mock patience and impassiveness, however, Obito, being a former jinchuuriki, one who had to live with hate, humiliation and scorn from his own village at a young age, was more than adequate at detecting negative emotions, hence why he was more than certain that this guy was almost literally about to explode on him.

"Ahem...I understand that there are some holes in my story, and I want you to know that I am more than willing to share this information with you. I will also leave the decision on whether we share it with the rest of the clan or not up to you..."

"That decision would have been mine anyway, don't, for a split second fool yourself into thinking otherwise, Obito..." Kagami trailed off with a threatening tone.

"I understand, Kagami-sama!" Obito replied passively.

"Make sure you don't forget that. Now, tell me, how did you survive an incident that had two geniuses like Hatake Kakashi and Namikaze Minato, along with one of the most promising medics in the village in your teammate Nohara Rin, convinced that you could not have possibly survived?" Kagami asked in a clear and concise manner.

"I used my mangyeko sharingan to survive the incident..." Obito trailed off as the tamoe in his eyes began to spin rapidly as they connected together and formed into their mangyeko sharingan form.

"M-masaka...t-this can't be...!" Kagami exclaimed uncharacteristically, a more than stupified and shocked expression appearing on his facial features.

"Yes it is! These eyes helped me to escape the boulders with minimal harm to my body." Obito replied.

"O-Obito...do you know what this means?" Kagami asked hysterically.

"Yes, it means that I'm on my way to surpassing Izuna-sama and Madara-sama, it means that I am on my way to achieving an unmatched and unprecedented greatness, and I will drag the clan up with me as I and the clan climb up the ladder of greatness. Kagami-sama, please teach me all of the secrets of the Uchiha clan, all of the forbidden jutsu and everything there is to know about our history. I want you to be my mentor, and one day, if you'll allow it, I want to lead the clan to greater heights, please, Kagami-sama!" Obito begged with his forehead planted firmly on the wooden floor.

_'Of course, thanks to Obito's memories from my timeline, I already know all the kinjutsu and everything there is to know about our history, but allowing Kagami to re-teach me everything will allow me to form a bond with him as mentor and apprentice, and that bond, along with my power will make me the automatic successor to him. Fugaku will never become the clan head in this reality, and the Uchiha clan's destiny will become totally different. I won't allow Madara, Danzo, the elders, or the Hokage to have their way this time around...Obito, I will rewrite everything...this is what you wanted me to do, isnt it?" _Naruto thought nostalgically.

"Obito...you will tell me everything now, I want to know exactly what happened and I want to know what kind of powers you have attained in those eyes! Only then, when you have told me everything, will we decide how to proceed from here on out." Kagami said with a demanding tone.

_'Hiruzen has found himself a worthy successor in Namikaze Minato, he is the elite of the elite and he has the character and mind to make a great hokage. Compared to that, my choice, Fugaku, is nothing in comparision, and to think that there has been currently no one else better than him. Shishui has shown promise, he will become one of the greatest to ever come from the clan, but he is still too young, Obito is also young, but if he has become this powerful over such a short space of time, I can only imagine how great he will become under my tutelage. He might be the successor I've been waiting for all along. With this disease, I don't have much time to live, but at least now, if Obito has become the person that I think he has, I can at least leave this world knowing that I leave the clan in hands even more capable than mine. And maybe I can get him to mentor shishui as well. Between the two of them, they should be more than capable of leading and protecting the clan." _Kagami thought long and hard, a small smirk morphing slowly but surely on his facial features.

**End Chapter**

Pairings will be Guren and Fu. There may be others but there also might not be.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or any other series I might use for inspiration.

_**Preparing For The Future**_

_'Damn that Obito, does he always have to arrive so late, wasting our time like this?' _Kakashi thought irritably.

He, Minato, and Rin were waiting for Obito in training ground seven, Minato had asked them to meet here two days ago when Obito made an astonishing return from the dead. Minato had wanted to give Obito at least a day to re-acclimate himself with his surroundings before resuming his duties as a member of team 7. Of course, under normal circumstances, he probably would have given Obito a lot more time, however, as there was a 3rd shinobi world war going on, such time could not, unfortunately be afforded to the young Uchiha.

"Moooo, where the hell is he? We've been waiting here for two hours now!" Rin exclaimed in frustration.

"There he is..." Minato trailed off, pointing behind Rin in the direction that Obito was coming from, the young Uchiha prodigy strolling towards his teammates seemingly without a care in the world, as if he wasn't a whooping two hours late, as if there wasn't a threat of war lurking in the shadows.

"Good morning, Minato-sensei, Rin, Kakashi. Please forgive me for my tardiness, there was something important that I had to do, it took a little longer than expected." Obito said with a calm and composed tone, making it very difficult for anyone to tell whether he was honestly being sincere about his apology or just going through the motions.

"Obito, I thought you said that you had changed, but I should have known that it was the same old you, trying to act cool and mature to gain some sort of false acknowledgement instead of taking things seriously and honestly working on your self growth. Don't you think it's about time that you started acting like a real shinobi?" Kakashi admonished with brutal efficiency.

"My history with punctuality, or rather, lack-of it, doesn't speak highly of me, so I suppose I'll have to take your insults on the chin and look the other way, however, I assure you, my tardiness today is not something that happened without good reason." Obito replied.

"Your opinions of good reason differ signifcantly from what other people consider to be justified cause..."

"That's enough you two!" Minato said with a threatening undertone.

"Obito, I'm sure you have your reasons, however, make sure that this doesn't become a regular occurence. Every second of training wasted could be the difference between surviving and dying in the war. Is that clear, Obito?" Minato asked with a dead serious tone.

"Hai, Minato-sensei!" Obito replied.

"Good...by the way?" Minato trailed off.

"Yes...?"

"What's your excuse this time for being late, and what's with the fan on your back?" Minato asked with a friendly smile, pointing at the red and white banana fan on the young Uchiha prodigy's back.

"Hmmmm...I suppose I might as well tell you, you'll find out soon enough anyway. Firstly, this is the Bashosen, one of the sage of the six path's legendary weapons. I was originally looking for my ancestor Uchiha Madara's gunbai, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, this is at least a close enough substitute to that. Don't bother asking me where I found this weapon or how it works, I will not reveal that information. Secondly, I've been adopted into Kagami-sama's immediate family, in other words, I am now Uchiha Shishui's older brother and Kagami-sama's older son." Uchiha Naruto Obito replied with a relaxed tone, almost as if merely speaking about the weather, causing everyone's eyes to widen in surprise at Obito's words.

"Y-you're the Uchiha clan head's son now? Obito-kun, that's wonderful news! Now you can finally have a family, the family that you always wanted! Congratulations!" Rin exclaimed happily, tears of joy flowing down her cheeks, seemingly even happier than Obito himself was at recent unfolding events.

_'Now I see why a young and lonely kid like Obi...Tobi, would so easily become infatuated with her.' _Naruto thought to himself, also realizing that he should rather stop thinking of himself as Naruto and start thinking of himself as, for all intents and purposes, Obito, and refer to the 'real' Obito rather as Tobi, for the sake of avoiding confusion within his own mind.

"Thank you, Rin." Obito replied with a small nod of the head.

"That's good news, maybe now that you'll be getting enough attention at home you'll stop seeking it from everyone else and really focus on your shinobi career." Kakashi said in a misguided form of support, speaking his mind as usual whereas some thoughts would have been better off not let out of the figurative box.

"Thank you, Kakashi. Maybe now you'll also let go of your petty jealousy that I'm always unintentionally stealing Minato-sensei's attention from you. After all, you do seem to have idolized him as a father figure. Now you'll also have the honourable and respectable father that you never had." Obito replied with equal brutality.

"Watch your mouth...Obito...!" Kakashi warned with a threatening tone.

_'Their rivalry seems to still be intact, however, I'm starting to wonder if this is a good or a bad thing. Can they really put their differences far away enough to be able to work together efficiently as a team?' _Minato pondered with concern.

_'Kakashi was a lot like Sasuke in his younger days it seems, no wonder Sasuke was always his favorite.' _Obito thought with a mental roll of the eyes.

"So that's why you were late for the team meeting? Wow, I'm so happy for you, Obito!" Minato said with a happy and friendly smile, wiping the tears from his eyes with the back of his sleeve.

_'Well, actually, the real reason that I am late is because I was looking for Shishui. He hasn't gone out on any missions but he is also nowhere to be found in the village. The only places I didn't check are the foundation's hideout places. Which proves my theory, Itachi and Shishui were definitely in the foundation, their shinobi code and phylosophy have a striking resemblance to Danzo's brainwashing, sacrificing everything, even family for the sake of Konoha.' _Obito thought to himself.

_'It's still early days though, Shishui is only eight years old, I can...will break him out of Danzo's shadow.' _Obito thought with conviction.

"Yes well, that's not all..." Obito trailed of suddenly.

"Huh, what else is there...?" Minato asked curiously.

"Kagami-sama has named me as his successor as clan head of the Uchiha clan and head of the Uchiha Police Force." Obito said, dropping a bomb right in front of his team without remorse.

"W-what!" Rin exclaimed in disbelief.

"Another attempt to gain attention, I should have known." Kakashi said with a dissapointed shake of the head.

"O-Obito..." Minato trailed off with a look of disbelief, starting to wonder himself now just how mentally stable...or unstable Obito was to cook up something like this.

"It's supposed to be a secret, no-one outside the clan is supposed to know until I get promoted to jonin. You see, Kagami-sama was forced to name a successor seven months ago because of his medical condition, and because Shishui was so young, Uchiha Fugaku, the strongest Uchiha at the time was named as successor. However, since my return and adoption into Kagami-sama's family, Kagami-sama has changed his mind and named me as his successor." Obito explained calmly, completely ignoring the disbelieving looks from his teammates.

"You're lying. For Kagami-dono to change the successor without the risk of an Uchiha revolution, he would have to find a way to prove that you are better suited, or at least more powerful than Uchiha Fugaku. In other words, you would be forced to do one on one battle with Uchiha Fugaku and defeat him, which is impossible for you." Kakashi deduced.

"Your skills of deduction and analysis are impressive as usual, Kakashi. And you're right, I was inevitably forced to do battle against Fugaku, and I soundly defeated him. The battle took place yesterday afternoon at the main Uchiha training grounds." Obito replied.

"Even if that were possible, which might I re-affrim, is not, you're still a chunin, the minimum requirement to become head of the Police Force is that you attain the rank of jonin. This is absolute proof that you're a pathological liar." Kakashi replied.

"You don't have to be so harsh about it, Kakashi-kun." Rin replied meekly.

"No, he's right. I would be required to attain jonin rank to become head of the Uchiha Police Force, hence why Kagami-sama told me to hand this letter over to you, Minato-sensei." Obito said as he took out a small envelope from his pocket and handed it over to Minato.

"What is this?" Minato asked curiously.

"A letter requesting that you submit a jonin promotion request to Hokage-sama for me, as you did for Kakashi. One has also been sent to the Hokage directly from Kagami-sama, however, he felt that one from both him and yourself would give me a stronger chance of beeing promoted." Obito said as he waited patiently for Minato to read the letter.

"This is very short and straight to the point, and, this is definitely Kagami-dono's handwritting." Minato thought out loud.

"Obito has awakened the sharingan, he could have easily copied Kagami-dono's handwritting." Kakashi refuted swiftly.

"Yes, however, this letter also has the clan head's seal, It would extremely difficult, and near impossible for even an elite shinobi to replicate or fake this." Minato pointed out hesitantly, struggling to dispel the disbelief even though the evidence was literally written in front of his eyes.

"Obito would do anything for recognition, do not underestimate the power of desperation as a source of motivation, sensei." Kakashi argued.

"Do you really hate to see me succeed that much, Kakashi?" Obito asked with genuine curiosity.

"I hate to see frauds succeed." Kakashi corrected.

"I guess I'll have to talk to Hokage-sama and Kagami-dono in person to really confirm this, however, in case this is true, I'm going to have to test you to confirm whether you really deserve a promotion or not. I can't just issue a promotion request for someone who is undeserving, that will put too many people, yourself included, at a risk in the field of battle. I hope you understand, Obito." Minato said with a serious tone.

"I understand perfectly. And I'm ready to pass whatever test that you might have for me." Obito said confidently.

"Your confidence is admirable, but it won't be that easy, Obito..." Minato trailed off as he took out two small bells from his kunai pouch and dangled them in front of Obito.

"This time, you won't have your team to help you out, you're going to have to try and get the bells yourself. " Minato said with a small smile.

_'Maybe I can get him to use that fan and find out if what he said was really true. Kakashi and Rin's attention was, thankfully, easily distracted from what he said about the fan thanks to his follow up statement about him being intergrated into Kagami's immediate family and his status as Kagami's successor, however...I am very interested in finding out about this. I remember Kushina once told me about this weapon and the Uzumaki clan's direct descendency from the sage, also, the fact that he was looking for Madara's gunbai has also peaked my interest.' _Minato thought to himself.

"A one on one with you huh, sounds good to me." Obito said with confidence and excitement.

"No...!" Kakashi exclaimed suddenly.

"Kakashi...?" Minato trailed off with a questioning stare.

"Let me take care of this, sensei. There is no need for a bell test. I'm also a jonin of Konohagakure no Sato and I have war experience. Let me fight him one on one so that we can put this issue to bed once and for all!" Kakashi said with determination

_'Hmmm...I wanted to test Obito's newly acquired sharingan powers myself, but maybe this is just as good, maybe even better. Their rivalry will push them to reach or even exceed their limits. There is no better way to test Obito than to pair him up against Kakashi. Obito wants to prove that he has become Kakashi's equal, or even better now that he has the sharingan, and Kakashi wants to prove that nothing has changed despite Obito awakening the sharingan. They're both motivated.' _Minato thought.

"Okay, I think that's a good idea, Kakashi. I'll let the two of you fight it out, but I'll be forced to interfere if it seems like one of you is going to die..."

"You mean if it seems like Obito will die?" Kakashi asked retorically.

"Anyway, Rin, come with me, we'll have to watch from a distance. We don't want to be caught in the crossfire." Minato ordered, skillfully, or rather not so skillfully, but bluntly avoiding a direct response to Kakashi's question.

"H-hai! Be careful Kakashi-kun, you too, Obito." Rin said with a worried expression before dissapearing into the surrounding forest, eventually taking a high position in the tallest tree she could find.

"Hn, this will be over sooner than you think, I doubt this test will tell you anything, Minato-sensei." Obito said with a small smirk.

"Obito, I'll show you the true power of a Konoha jonin. You will never disrespect this rank again." Kakashi said with a superior attitude.

"Okay, I want both of you to do your best. Hajime!" Minato said as he disapeared with a very fast shunshin technique. Obito didn't even waste a split second, jumping back a further ten metres as soon as Minato activated his shunshin as he blazed through a sequence of hand seals at a ridiculous speed.

_'I-Impossible! I can't follow his hand seals!' _Kakashi thought with wide eyes.

_'But he's going to use a fire technique, he's an Uchiha after all. I'll just counter with a suiton technique.' _Kakashi thought within a split second, quickly initiating the hand seals for a water technique to counter against Obito's fire jutsu.

**"Fire Style: Great Majestic Anihilation!" **Obito whispered as he released a massive wall of fire from his mouth, one big enough to wipe out an entire army platoon, big enough to destroy the whole forest in fact.

**"Water Style: Water Wall!"**Kakashi shouted as he blew out a stream of water out of his mouth, using shape manipulation to turn the stream into a circulating shield of water to protect himself, however, much to his surprise, the water shield was evaporated literally in an instant, as if it was never there to begin with, his eyes widening in surprise when he saw the real magnitude of Obito's technique, the fire taking the form of an incredible wall of destruction, so wide, so high, so powerful, and so destructive that the young Hatake had absolutely no possible way of avoiding the technique. As a result, Kakashi could only freeze in place as he realised that his death was imminent, that he would die at Uchiha Obito's hands of all people.

**"Space-time Barrier Technique!" **Kakashi heard as Minato appeared in front of him in an instant, his left hand stretched out with a hiraishin kunai in it as a sealing matrix appearing in the space in front of his arm. As a result, the whole fire technique was absorbed into the barrier and transported to a secure location outside of the village, an great explosion eminating from said location as a whole forest was destroyed thanks to Uchiha Obito's great majestic anihilation technique.

"A space-time barrier huh? And...is that a hiraishin kunai on your hand? So than, this technique is a variation of your teleportation technique?" Obito asked curiously.

_'He must have used the kunai he gave to Kakashi as a promotion present to teleport himself in front of Kakashi.' _Obito thought.

"That was a quick analysis, Obito, your skills of observation have improved, as expected of a sharingan wielder I suppose." Minato said with a deadly tone, one that he instinctively had when he was in the heat of battle.

"Thank you, Minato-sensei, does that mean you'll send in the jonin promotion request now? After all, you said you'd only interfere if it seemed like one of us was about to die, and, given that Kakashi is the one that you protected, it should be obvious that I wasn't the one about to die. I won the battle against a jonin with one move, if that doesn't prove that I deserve a promotion than I do not know what will." Obito stated matter of factly.

_'At first glance, it seems like he is still the old boastful Obito, however, if one pays enough attention, you can tell that he is completely different. He is not boasting right now, he is actually just stating facts.' _Minato thought analytically.

"Being a jonin is not only about raw destructive power. The only thing you proved right now is that you have a more destructive set in your jutsu arsenal than Kakashi. For all we know, that could be your only advantage. What happens when you come up against a water release chakra tank from Kirigakure no Sato, like one of the seven ninja swordsmen, Hoshigaki Kisame, or Hozuki Mangetsu? In other words, what happens when you come up against someone who can counter against your fire style?" Minato asked retorically.

"So, what you're saying is, that you need to see how I perform in a tight situation where I am at the disadvantage?" Obito asked.

"Precisely." Minato replied.

"I see, you want to see how I fair against you? You want to fight me right here and right now, since you have displayed the ability to counter against my highly destructive fire style ninjutsu?" Obito asked again.

"Precisely." Minato repeated.

"Minato sensei..." Kakashi started only to be cut off by his sensei.

"Kakashi, you and I will have a word later, step down for now. Go and join Rin on the sidelines and watch the battle carefully. Learn everything you can from the battle." Minato ordered authoratively.

"But..."

"You were caught off guard, I understand that. No one could have expected that Obito, or anyone for that matter, to use such a high level technique. However, this is a lesson that you have to learn, intel is one of the most valuable resources for a shinobi, but sometimes it can be a double-edged sword, it can cause you to underestimate your opponent because of what you think you know about them, neglecting to consider that things could have drastically changed since the intel was gathered. I want you to step down, not as punishment, but because I want you to learn another lesson, that is, that life sometimes doesn't afford you second chances, sometimes, and in fact most of the time in the shinobi world, one mistake is all it takes for your career and your life to come to an end. If I give you a second shot at Obito, I'm afraid this lesson will not sink deep enough into your mind, pain and suffering is sometimes needed in order to grow." Minato lectured compassionately.

"Do you understand, Kakashi?" Minato asked with a caring but firm tone.

"Y-yes, Minato-sensei...!" Kakashi replied dejectedly, gritting his teeth in frustration, humiliation, and anger, unable to believe that he was not only defeated by Obito, but also that he was defeated with one single move.

If he wasn't so sure that this was reality, Kakashi was sure that he would have been pinching himself really hard right now to wake himself up from this nightmare. It urked him that Obito defeated him, it urked him that he defeated him with only one move, however, what really made it worse, was that he knew that even if he got a second chance, even if they were to re-start their battle now, he knew that he would lose again just as swiftly. There would be absolutely no change in his fortunes, because not only couldn't he follow Obito's hand seal movements anymore, but he had absolutely no way to counter or even to just avoid Obito's jutsu.

_'There's actually no way to just avoid that kind of jutsu, it's everywhere, above you, around you, and even below you, it destroys the earth and everything it comes into contact with, it even evaporates my level of water style. Even if there had been a water source for me to use, it would still have made no difference, it would take at least five water users combining their efforts to put out something like that. The only way I could have countered was with a...with a space-time ninjutsu...!' _Kakashi trailed off thoughtfully, eyes wide in realization, an idea quickly formulating inside his mind, almost missing a step as he tree hopped to a safer distance, far enough away not to be caught in the cross-fire between Obito and Minato-sensei, but close enough to be able to see what was happening.

"I've already passed this exam and you know it, just admit it, this is no longer about the promotion, you just want to see what other rabits I can pull out of the figurative hat. You don't have to lie to me, Minato-sensei." Obito said matter of factly.

"I admit to nothing." Minato replied simply, getting into a battle-ready stance in anticipation of Obito's next attack.

_'He's not joking around is he? He's actually taking this seriously, that's not very good.' _Obito thought to himself.

He didn't want to show his team everything he had just yet, however, if Minato was taking things this seriously, then he knew he would inevitably have to show everything he had. He needed to make sure that Minato-sensei was fully bought into his promotion, that he would even fight for it to go through rather than just making a simple request. His former dad, now sensei, had a very nasty habit of ending battles in an instant thanks to his fighting style, the only way for Obito to last long enough to etch an impression deep into Minato's mind was to last longer than most enemies do, maybe to even corner his opponent..

_'I don't have a marking on me, and he hasn't dispersed his kunai around the battlefield yet, maybe he's still not taking me seriously enough after all, or he feels that the battle will end too soon for him to gage my abilities if he does so. Well, in that case, I guess I shouldn't dissapoint...Kakuzu, I should thank you one day for this before I kill you, I wouldn't be able to do this if I hadn't fought you in my previous life' _Obito thought as three shadow clones popped out around him without him even forming the cross hand sign, two on his left and one on his right hand two shadow clones on his left hand side were already moulding hand seals at unreadable speeds to anyone else besides Minato and Obito himself when they appeared. One moulding hand seals for a fire jutsu and the other moulding hand seals for a wind technique.

**"Fire Style: Cranium Carver/Wind Style: Bleeding Force!" **The two shadow clones whispered as they combined to form a devastating combination of wind and fire, creating another platoon eradicating/forest detroying inferno.

_'Another powerful katon, this time combined with wind style? The ability to manipulate two nature transformations is considered to be the level required to attain the rank of jonin, however, what difference does he think this will make?' _Minato thought as he casually formed another space-time barrier, holding his left hand out with hiraishin kunai held side ways as a barrier formed in the space in front of him.

_'He defeated a jonin, Kakashi, and now he is not only able to manipulate two chakra elements, but to use even combo attacks with them, he is definitely jonin level in terms of abilities, but I'm afraid his intellect and tactical proficiency is not quite...' _Minato trailed off with wide eyes as Obito popped out of the ground a few 10 metres behind him, swinging the Bashosen as a giant wave of water seemingly appeared out of thin air, heading straight for Minato, his back exposed as he was still absorbing the wind/fire combo with his space-time barrier.

**"Water Style: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!" **Obito whispered with a small smirk displayed on his facial features.

_'He's trying to enclose me in and force me to retreat. He knows that I haven't placed any markings around the battefield so if I teleport, than essentially it will be to a location far away from the battlefield where I have left some of my markings. It will qualify as a tactical retreat and I will have lost the battle in that sense. Not only that, but he is now using water style through the Bashosen, clever, as the water will cancel out the fire if I teleport and stop him from getting burned by his own jutsu...however, it won't be that easy for you to get rid of me, Obito-kun!' _Minato thought as he took a page out of Obito's book, creating a shadow clone without forming the hand sign, the clone, in a manner similar to the original, extending it's left hand out with a hiraishin kunai in hand, forming a space-time barrier to teleport the water style.

_'He created three clones, two are combining for the wind/fire style combo, and one is responsible for the water style. That means that there is one more attack coming, and that one will come from the original.' _Minato thought to himself, and just as expecyed, the next attack came a split second later, Obito popping out of the ground in between the Minato clone and the original, his skin looking darker than usual as he launched a simple, or at least, what appears to be a simple punch towards Minato's spine.

_'He's fast!' _Minato thought in surprise.

Obito was a little surprised when Minato didn't seem even interested in avoiding the attack, but that also made him suspicious. However, he had no choice but to follow up on his attack, not that he had the time or ability to halt his movements given how fast he was moving, having recreated the speed and effects of his bijuu mode shunsin from when he was still a jinchuuriki in his other life with his own chakra, his memories and experiences in his other life very telling and helpful in the development of his new fighting style. Anyway, his speed didn't seem to help on this occasion, Minato disapearing in a puff of smoke from the impact of Obito's punch, causing Obito's eyes to widen in surprise before he was engulfed by his own fire technique, however, not before shielding his entire head with his arms. It didn't come as much of a surprise to Obito when he felt the fires quickly get put out by his own water jutsu, although it didn't really make him feel any less uncomfortable than he was already, the boiling steam making it very hard for him to keep his eyes open, not to mention breathing.

_'He used the flying raijin technique to switch places with his clone in an instant, at the very last split second. He also used hiraishin instead of the normal substitution so that I wouldn't be able to trace his movements with my sharingan. He then threw a hiraishin kunai straight upwards so that he can teleport to the space above the two jutsu in the air and allowed the water style to enclose me along with the fire style. Essentially, he made me look like a genin by using my own techniques against me, good thing I made provision for such a scenario.' _Obito thought, using his deduction skills and his chakra sensing abilities to discern everything that happened, along with pin-pointing Minato's current position.

_'I'll use the cover of the steam to launch my counter attack...' _Obito trailed off in surprise as he heard the sound of hiraishin kunai's embedding into the ground in strategic areas around the battlefield, and also right around him.

_'Of course! He also knows exactly where I am, he's also a sensor type...!' _Obito trailed off as Minato appeared behind him in an instant, lodging a kunai into each one of Obito's shoulders, or at least tried to, only for the kunai's to bounce off of the young Uchiha prodigy's shoulders, the young Uchiha not wasting a moment as he spinned around with matching reflexes as his unknowing father, and aimed for a kick to the chest.

_'One hit, I just need one clear hit and it's over. I'll have to thank Kakuzu for doton domu as well when I meet him again in this timeline.' _Obito thought as he delivered the kick, Minato surprised once again by Obito's reflexes, however, managing to teleport away at the last split second.

"Wow, I'm impressed Obito, you're even faster than the raikage and his son, you're just as fast as I am, or at least as fast as Kushina-chan in her tailed beast state." Minato praised, a look of pride plastered on his face as the steam started to clear up.

"Well, I've been training non-stop for almost every hour of the day for three months, you didn't think that, with you as my sensei, that I woud neglect my speed training did you?" Obito asked retorically, the steam now completely clearing up as Obito released a small breeze of wind to clear the rest up, making him visible to the naked eye of everyone that was watching or taking part in the battle.

At the back of his mind, Minato was wondering to himself how exactly Obito had survived that recent incident without sustaining severe burns and at least loss of consciousness. The water style had tempered the flames enough for a normal shinobi to have 'a chance' of survival, and if it looked like Obito wouldn't survive, Minato had been prepared to interfere, after all, he did drop a kunai next to Obito right before he teleported himself away from the immediate danger. However, Obito didn't even seem fazed by the technique, his skin was darker and his Uchiha clan turtlenecked black shirt was completely burned off, there were some holes in his pants too, but absolutely no physical injuries.

_'It seems like the only thing he got was a tan...' _Minato trailed off as his eyes widened slightly, memories of his kunai bouncing off of the young Uchiha's skin filtering through his mind.

"So Obito, how exactly did you survive that jutsu without even so much as a burn mark on your skin? And why were my razor sharp, specially designed hiraishin kunai unable to penetrate your skin?" Minato asked curiously.

"Are you just trying to brag about your weapons, or are you trying to rub in the fact that you made me hit myself with my own ninjutsu?" Obito asked retorically, skillfully avoiding answering the question that his sensei was posing.

"One of the first lessons I taught you was..."

"To be carefully how I use my ninjutsu, or it might just end up being used against me." Obito cut in, raising his left arm into the air as he caught his banana fan, the clone that was previously using it, the one responsible for the suiton attack, disappearing in a puff of smoke after throwing the weapon, along with the other two clones.

"So you do remember...it didn't seem like you remembered that lesson at all about a minute ago." Minato taunted.

"I anticipated the possibility that something like that would happen, it was a calculated risk, after all, I did survive the jutsu without so much as an injury didn't I." Obito said as he placed the Bashosen back on his back.

"Oh ya, about that...?"

"Don't bother asking, I won't tell you anything about it, but I will say this, physical attacks just don't work against me." Obito replied with a neutral expression.

"I see, so your skin really is impenetrable right now, wow, I can't believe just how much you've improved in just three months. I'm so proud of you, Obito, the only thing I regret is that I played absolutely no part in your development." Minato said with a nostalgic expression.

"Don't sell yourself so short sensei, you did more for me and my development than you will ever know." Obito replied, also spotting a nostalgic expression as memories of his past life flashed briefly through his mind.

"Thank you, Obito, that means more to me than you will ever know." Minato replied with a happy smile.

"Okay whatever, this is starting to sound gay, no offense to homosexuals, but I just don't swing that way. I hope you understand, sensei." Obito said mockingly.

"Hahahahahahaha! Sure, I understand. For the record, I don't, as you say, swing that way either." Minato replied.

"Than let us end this battle." Obito said as he adopted a battle stance.

**"Barrier Arts: Four Violet Flames Technique!" **Minato whispered with a single ram hand sign, causing a barrier of purple flames to form around and below Obito, effectively trapping him in one place.

_'He's using his flying raijin kunais as the four origin points of the barrier, and he's transmitting his chakra through the seals on the kunai in order to maintain the jutsu. Wow, this technique usually requires at least four people to form and maintain, and it requires said people to remain motionless on one spot. Yet he is using the same ability all on his own, without inhibiting his own movements. This is the power of a true seal master.' _Obito thought, more than a little impressed by his dad's/sensei's sealing and barrier prowess.

"Sometimes you don't need to wound or kill your opponent, sometimes you only need to subdue or capture him, especially when he seems to be immune to any physical attacks or blunt trauma type ninjutsu." Minato lectured as he once again teleported himself, teleporting to a position just outside the barrier as he waited for Obito to forfeit.

However, clearly he had underestimated Obito's **doton:domu**, as the young Uchiha went right through the violet flames barrier at top speed, but Obito was only able to touch Minato, just barely with his middle finger knuckle before the Hokage candidate once again flew away with his teleportation technique. That left Obito a little frustrated, because if he'd been a split second faster, Minato would be on his way to the emergency ward at the hospital right now, after all, one of the perks of doton: domu was indeed that it enhanced the power behind the user's taijutsu attacks, giving him a type of super strength.

"Phew! That was a close call Obito-kun, your speed is really impressive, I can't remember the last time someone actually touched me in the field of battle."Minato praised.

_'Is he toying with me? Or is he just putting up a front to make it seem like he isn't rattled by me touching him?' _Obito wondered to himself.

"Well, you were right about one thing, your iron skin armour or whatever does make you immune to physical attacks of any sort, even the acidic flames of the violet flames barrier couldn't do anything to you. However, there's one other thing that I haven't tried out..." Minato trailed off, channeling raiton chakra into his kunai as he prepped himself for his next attack.

_'Damn him! How did he figure it out? I didn't even make any hand signs when I activated the technique.' _Obito thought with a little trepidition, taking out a kunai of his own and channelling wind chakra into it to counter against Minato's lightning style.

"Aaaaah! Wind style to counter against my lightning style huh? Though I have to ask, why would you feel the need to counter my lightning enhanced kunai if you're really immune to all physical attacks? Is it perhaps because my theory is correct, that your iron skin is a jutsu related to your affinity for doton?" Minato asked with a patronizing tone.

"I don't know how you figured it out, but than again, you wouldn't be the yellow flash of Konoha if you couldn't." Obito replied simply, taking on a defensive battle stance in anticipation of Minato's next attack.

_'I don't think I can win this without using the mangekyo sharingan, and even then, there's still no gaurantee that I'd win. However, even if I can't win, a stalemate is definitely possible, that's all I need. I don't need to actually win this battle, as a result, I don't actually need to reveal all of my secrets just yet.' _Obito thought.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, however, I believe it's just about time we ended this little skirmish." Minato said, disapearing once again in an instant, apearing behind Obito, on his blind spot in order to prevent Obito from countering against his lightning style kunai, once again aiming for the joints between Obito's shoulders in order to disable him.

_'Attacking on my blind spot with instantaneous teleportation, speed and reflexes is probably the best way to counter against a sharingan wielder, however...' _Obito thought as he channeled chakra into the bashosen that was placed on his back, the fan, in an instant, releasing a big ball of highly pressurized wind towards the yellow flash at point blank range, forcing the Hokage candidate to teleport away once again, this time however, not away from the young Uchiha, but on his right hand side.

Obito was very quick to react, using his instantaneous reflexes to block Minato's assualt, however, the wind style enhanced kunai was on his left hand, and because Minato was attacking from the right, there was no time for him to swing his arm all the way around and counter against Minato's assault, hence forcing him to block the attack with his bare hand, earning him a very nasty and deep cut across the palm of his hand. With the pain instantly traveling to his brain, Obito quickly jumped away from Minato, landing a relatively safe ten metres away from his sensei.

"That was quite clever of you Obito-kun, I never imagined that you could use the bashosen to protect your blind spot like that. It's an ingenius strategy. However, perhaps you should have held a kunai in both of your arms, you overestimated your speed and reflexes, or rather, you underestimated mine." Minato praised and chastised in equal measure.

"Duely noted." Obito said simply, taking out another kunai from his weapons pouch and placing it on his right hand, a right hand that was already no longer bleeding, the wound closing up instantly thanks to Obito's intant yin/yang regeneration technique, one that took a ridiulous amount of chakra to use, but really not that much for such a small injury, especially for an Uchiha-Uzumaki like him.

"You're comfortably holding that kunai on your hand, and your wound is no longer bleeding, what's happening, Obito?" Minato asked with narrowed eyes.

"Don't be silly, how else do you think I survived that incident at the Kanabi Bridge, Minato-sensei?" Obito asked retorically.

"I see, so not only do most physical attacks not work on you, but even the ones that do are rendered ineffective because you have a high speed self-healing ability? Just how much don't we know about you, Obito?" Minato asked suspiciously.

"There's stuff people don't know about you and your wife too, you also have alot of secrets don't you, Minato-sensei?" Obito asked, causing Minato's eyes to narrow dangerously.

"You don't have to put on such a scary face, I'm not a threat to you, and your secrets are safe with me. I would never do anything to jeapardise yours, or Kushina-sama's wellbeing. You can trust me." Obito said sincerely.

_'His chakra is calm, and there's no deception or hidden agenda in his tone, he's being honest and sincere right now.' _Minato thought.

"Okay. I believe you, but you're going to have to tell me exactly how much you know in order for me to truly trust you." Minato said with an uncompromizing tone.

"I'll tell you how much I know about you and your secrets, but don't expect me to tell you all of mine. Besides, I've already told you everything that I feel you need to know about me by fighting you today. You now know how strong I am, and how smart I am. By fighting you, I have shared with you some of my ninjutsu and fighting style secrets. Some strengths of mine, and some weaknesses of mine." Obito explained calmly.

"But you haven't shown me everything, you're still holding back aren't you?" Minato asked retorically.

"A shinobi never reveals all of his secrets unless he has absolutely no choice, that was one of the first lessons that you ever taught us, Minato-sensei. Besides, I'm pretty sure that you haven't gone all out on me either." Obito retorted.

"Okay, I understand. But, since you went through the trouble to investigate my background, don't expect me not to extent the same courtesy to you." Minato warned.

"Only on one condition, that you don't bring anyone else into this, and you call off your watchdog, your sensei has been following me around since I returned." Obito replied.

_'Jiraiya-sensei?' _Minato thought, eyes slightly widening at Obito's insinuations.

"Do we have a deal?" Obito asked.

"Yes...yes we have a deal!" Minato stuttered out.

"You don't sound too sure..."

"I'm sure." Minato said with a lot more conviction.

_'Why is Jiraiya-sensei following Obito-kun?' _Minato thought with a little confusion.

_**"Think he knows about me?" **_A deep, dark, and sinister voice sounded inside Minato's head, the voice that belonged to his unwilling passenger.

_"I don't know, that's what I intend to find out though, I'm going to make him tell me everything he knows." _Minato replied.

_**"Well in any case, if he knows about me, than that means he might know about the Uzumaki clan's shinigami mask, and who knows what other secrets of the Uzumaki clan." **_

_"I doubt he knows that much, he might know about you being inside of me, and he might know that I split you in half, and as a result you now exist both inside of me and in Kushina-chan, but there is no way that he would know exactly how I did it." _Minato refuted.

_**"Well in any case, keep an open mind, don't rule anything out just yet. And remember, I still hate you for what you did, and I have no intention of telling you my real name no matter how many times you ask. I'm out of here...make sure you deal with this situation." **_

_"You're being awfully helpful today, Kyubi, it's almost like you care about me." _Minato said knowingly.

_**"Rrrrrrrrr...!" **_The voice, now known simply as 'Kyubi', growled out menacingly.

_'It seems like I have reached a stalemate with Obito-kun. I can't attack from his blindspot anymore, and now that both his arms are armed, I can't attack from the front or the sides either. He's also got wind style to counter against my raiton. The only way I could defeat him now would be to become even faster than I am right now, and the only way to do that is to use that mode. But nobody knows about that mode, and I'd like to keep nine tails a secret for as long as possible. The only way to force him to show me what else he is hiding is to reveal what I'm also hiding it seems. Maybe this is exactly how he wanted it.' _Minato thought.

"Okay, I believe I have gathered all the information that I needed. You have the ability to manipulate three elements at a very advanced level, and all five when one takes the Bashosen into account. You're faster than 99.9 percent of any other jonins out there, and you're incredibly smart and brilliant in battle tactics. You're also well informed and good at gathering intel it seems. You're definitely a jonin level shinobi, in fact, you're more than a jonin level. At your level, you could even become a kage. It is because of this that I will personally make sure that you get that jonin promotion." Minato said as he relaxed his battle stance, indicating that the battle was now over and Obito could relax too.

"Thank you, Minato-sensei, I promise not to disapoint you." Obito replied with a small bow of the head, his skin turning back to it's original colour as he deactivated his doton: domu.

"You'll make a great clan head, Obito. I'm confident that one day you'll even surpass the legendary Uchiha brothers, Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Izuna." Minato praised with the sincerest of hearts.

"I know. Thank you though, that means alot to me, sensei." Obito said with a small smile.

"Ummmm...Obito, I know that it was always your dream to become Hokage, but..."

"They're going to name you the Fourth Hokage soon, aren't they?" Obito asked retorically.

"Ummm...yes, I'm sorry..."

"No need for that, I'm not sad or angry about it, I'm actually happy for you. No one in the village deserves this more than you. Sensei, I believe you'll become the greatest Hokage in the history of Konoha." Obito said with an honest heart, causing Minato's eyes to widen in surprise, a warm feeling settling at the middle of his chest at Obito's words, but more importantly, at Obito's unwavering faith in him.

_'They'll be no Kyubi breakout this time, mom will have an uneventful child birth, I'll personally make sure of it! Dad, you'll get ti raise your family this time, and you'll live long enough to fulfill your true potential!' _Obito thought with determination.

"Thank you, Obito. I'll do my best!" Minato replied with a goofy smile along with a thumbs up.

"Just stating a fact. Anyway, I'm guessing you want to have that talk now?" Obito asked retorically.

"Yes, but let's have it somewhere else!" Minato said, handing over a tri pronged kunai to Obito before teleporting the two of them away to another location.

**Later That Nigh:Elsewhere inside Konoha**

"Where do you think you are taking me at this time of the night, Orochimaru? This better be something worth my time for you to wake me up in the middle of the night!" Sarutobi Hiruzen complained.

"Oh stop complaining so much, Sarutobi-sensei, you're starting to sound like nagging old hag of a wife, it's unbecoming of a Hokage to behave like this." Orochimaru replied with a mocking smirk, his pale snake-like skin glowing in the moonlight and his gold/yellow eyes gleeming in the night.

"Can you at least tell me where we are going, and why we are going there?" Hiruzen asked impatiently.

"I just wanted to talk to you about your announcement next month, about the Fourth Hokage." Orochimaru said.

"I'm not going to go back on my decision, that boy has a unlimited potential and ability, as do you of course, however, he has something extra that I'm not too sure that you have..."

"Which is?" Orochimaru asked hastily, more than a little curious to find out what that naive little boy Minato could possibly have that he didn't have.

"He has inherited Hashirama-sama's will of fire in abundance, so much so that he might even be Hashirama-sama reincarnation for all I know. He has the same principles, the same shinobi code, and the same heart as Shodaime-sama. His fighting style is more reminscent of Tobirama-sama, but there is no doubt that his will and strength of character is carbon copy of Hashirama-sama himself. It would be an illogical injustice if he were not to become the Fourth Hokage." Hiruzen explained.

_'Not to mention, he's alot more trustworthy than you are, Orochimaru!' _Hiruzen thought suspiciously.

If he were to be honest with himself, Hiruzen would say that he wished, with all his heart, nothing more than to see Orochimaru don the Hokage hat. He loved Orochimaru like a son and he knew more than anyone just how talented of a shinobi he was. However, as the reigning Hokage, he had a responsibility to do right by the people of Konoha, and electing a shady guy like Orochimaru, with such a hefty dose of questionable morals and suspicious behaviour, would be the greatest injustice he could ever do by the people. He might as well hand his power over to Danzo in that case.

"I see, so what you mean is, that Hashirama-sama was naive and stupid, and his shinobi code was based on nothing but pipe dreams and delusions about the world? Kukuku! I fear for the survival of the village if that's what it takes to become a Hokage." Orochimaru replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm and contempt.

"In any case, as I was saying, I have something I want to show you that will, without a doubt, make you change your mind." Orochimaru said with unwavering confidence.

"Where are you taking me too exactly? And what delusion have you cooked up to think that I would change my mind?" Hiruzen asked with a perplexed expression.

At the back of his mind, Hiruzen couldn't help but wonder if Orochimaru was planning to kill him. After all, why else would Orochimaru have insisted that he ditch his Hokage guard for this little trip of theirs? However, killing him also didn't make sense, it's not like killing him would automatically make Orochimaru the next Hokage. The elders already knew about his decision and so did Jiraiya, Minato, and all the clan heads. Unless of course Orochimaru was planning to defect, in which case he could see Orochimaru trying to kill him out of some twisted sense of revenge and than leaving the village altogether. He loved Orochimaru like a son, but that's not to say that he was completely blind as to what kind of person Orochimaru had become.

"We're going to one of my secret science labs, I've just recently succeeded with a new experiment, it's something that will change Konoha and our military strength altogether. I'm confident that you will change your mind about your choice once we get there." Orochimaru said honestly.

"I doubt it, but I'll keep an open mind." Hiruzen replied neutrally.

_'Oh your mind will be opened alright, kukukuku!' _Orochimaru thought elatedly.

_'So he does have secret hideouts within the village after all, and that's where he keeps disapearing to. But what's this about experimentation? Orochimaru, you better not be conducting any human experiments!' _Hiruzen thought with trepidition.

He now new for sure that there was a chance that indeed Orochimaru would try to kill him. If he indeed was conducting human experiments, like Hiruzen suspected, than Orochimaru would have no choice but to escape and leave the village if Hiruzen didn't approve of his work. And Hiruzen would have no choice but to stop Orochimaru, in which case, a battle to the death would be ensured. However, if Orochimaru thought that it would be that easy to kill him, the professor, than he had another thing coming.

**30 minutes later...**

"We're here!" Orochimaru said as he came to a complete halt in front of what appeared to be a random tree in the middle of the forest.

"What do you mean we're here, I don't see anything here! Orochimaru, you better not be playing games with me...!" Hiruzen warned with a threatening undertone.

"Sometimes, the best place to hide is in plain site. Watch this..." Orochimaru said as he placed his palm on the middle of the tree and channeled his chakra into it, causing a small door to become visible on the surface of the tree. Orochimaru than proceeded to knock seven times with a specific tune and sequence, causing the door to unlock itself and unhindge from it's bindings against the hollow tree.

"After you, Sarutobi-sensei." Orochimaru said with mischievious smirk, holding the door open for Hiruzen to enter.

_'A staircase, of course! The base is hidden beneath the earth, and no one would ever suspect a tree to be the doorway to such a place.' _Hiruzen thought as he saw a spiraling staicase going down from the doorway, more than a little impressed by Orochimaru's creative intellect.

"No offense, but there's no way I'm going in there before you, Orochimaru!" Hiruzen said bluntly.

"Kukukukukuku! None taken, but you really need to losen up some sensei, I know you're scared of me, but it's not good to live your life in fear." Orochimaru said as he went in ahead of Hiruzen.

_'I'm not scared, just not an idiot.' _Hiruzen thought as he followed Orochimaru down the staircase, the door closing itself right after he walked through it, almost spooking the shinobi out of him.

Hiruzen was more than weary of being trapped in such a place with Orochimaru, Orochimaru was his beloved student, and one of the great heros of Konoha who did wonders in the wars, earning himself and his teammates legendary status in the shinobi world. He had done alot for Konoha, and sacrificed alot for Konoha too, but Hiruzen's insticts and danger senses just went haywire everytime he was around the man. There was no definite proof that Orochimaru was not to be trusted, no definite proof that he was either a traitor or was involved in ilegal activities, his only crime was being different, reclusive, and disapearing from the naked eye from time to time. Nothing to worry about, right? These were the thoughts filtering through Hiruzen's mind as they traveled down the seemingly never ending flight of stairs, until the got to the very bottom of it, the journey taking them to a big and oval room that was suspiciously empty. However, there was a door on the other side of the room, indicating that there was more to this hideout than just an empty room.

"If you wanted to show me empty space, I'm sure we could have done that without..." Hiruzen trailed off as the door on the other side opened slowly, eventually revealing a very very old looking woman on a wheelchair and a young girl, probably 13 years of age, pushing her into the room.

The woman had long pure white hair, an astonishing degree of wrinkles all over her body, and beautiful blue eyes, wearing only a long white Kimomo and red sandals. The girl on the other hand had black long black hair tied in a ponytail with two bangs framing her heart shaped face, dark eyes and quite a curvaceous body for such a young person, wearing black skirt over dark blue spandex shorts, a a black-sleeveless top and a chuunin flack-jacket over that, along with a brown weapons pouch on her right thigh and blue shinobi sandals.

"Hello Hiruzen, how are you doing?" The woman asked blandly.

"You don't sound too eager to see me, Yamanaka Hitomi." Hiruzen said matter of factly.

"That's Hitomi-sama to you, I'm fifty four years older than you, that makes me exactly twice as old as you are, show a little respect for your elders, brat!" Hitomi said with a weak voice, even though her feistyness hadn't deminished in the slightest over the years.

"On the contrary, that's Hokage-sama to you...!" Hiruzen countered irritably. He never liked this one since he was but a young lad, for some reason, she'd always had it in for him. He remebered that she vehemently protested against Tobirama-sama and Hashirama-sama taking him on as a student and she was always against their decision for him to become the third. His reason for disliking her was purely born of the fact that she herself absolutely despised him, he didn't know exactly why, maybe it had something to do with his parents, or even grandparents, he just didn't know really.

"You don't deserve that title and we both know it, Danzo would have made a better..."

"Ahem! Anyway, Hokage-sama, I'm sure you know me, but let me introduce myself anyway...my name is Nara Mikumi, it's an honour to meet your aquintance!" The other female in the room, the much younger and pleasing to the eye one, cut in as she shook hands with the Hokage, bowed respectfully, and than took her place once again next to her senior's wheelchair.

"I remember who you are, you graduated to chuunin at the age of ten, the youngest to ever make chuunin at that age from the Nara clan. I'm surprised you haven't applied for a jonin promotion yet, you record is outstanding young lady." Hiruzen said, causing Mikumi to blush at getting such kind of praise from the Sandaime himself.

"Oh please shut up Hiruzen, I'm in no mood to listen to you shamelessly using your title to woe this innocent child. Perverts disgust me, but pedophiles just make me want to slit my own wrists and end my miserable life!"

"I'm sure the world would be a better place if you did just that." Hiruzen countered.

"Kukukukukuku! There's no love lost between the two of you is there." Orochimaru said with a tone dripping with amusement.

"Orochimaru...why did you bring me here anyway? Of all the people in the world, did you actually believe that getting a vote of confidence from her would put you in a better standing as a Hokage candidate?" Hiruzen asked angrily.

"Oh give me at least a little more credit, Sarutobi-sensei, you don't really believe that I brought you here just to have a word with Hitomi-sama now do you? Didn't I tell you, I'm about to show you the fruits of my hard labour, my brilliant mind, and my scientific research. I'm going to make Hitomi-sama a whole 54 years younger...yes, when we're done here today, Hitomi-sama will be your age exactly, well, at least biologically." Orochimaru explained, much to Hiruzen's awe and a little trepiditon, awe at all the possibilities for Konoha's shinobi force if Orochimaru really can do something like that, trepidition at the thought of Hitomi living any longer than she should.

"You look speechless, did I catch you by surprise?" Orochimaru asked tauntingly.

"Orochimaru, this better not be a joke! How exactly do you intend to do this?" Hiruzen demanded.

"Well, let us show him exactly what we mean, shall we, Mikumi-chan?" Orochimaru said with a suggestive smile, causing Mikumi to smirk in return.

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama!" Mikumi said as he chakra spiked up rapidly, so much so that her whole body became covered in a red, eight tailed chakra cloak that kind of looked like a bull headed octopus.

"I-Impossible...what have you done, Orochimaru?" Hiruzen stuttered out, unable to believe the sheer power and potency of the chakra that this young girl was emitting, unable to believe either that she was somehow a jinchuuriki.

"That's not all there is to it, the show is just beginning. Do it, Mikumi-chan!" Orochimaru ordered as Mikumi adopted a ram hand sign, causing black markings to spread all over Hiruzen's body at a rapid speed, but that's not the only thing that happened, over ten black hands extended out of Hiruzen's shadow and bound him all over his body, holding him perfectly still and unable to move from his position.

"The markings on your body are the sealing formulae for a paralysis cursed seal that paralyzes your body of course, you're also being held by a shadow paralysis technique that binds your body in place, different from the shadow imitation as she can move around without you imitating her movements. Last but not least, you're being bound in place by a shadow binding technique, those shadow hands would be the binding technique of course." Mikumi explained with a sinister smirk.

"You think this will little girl can hold me? Orochimaru, no, not just Orochimaru, all three of you perhaps need to be reminded who exactly it is that I am." Hiruzen said as he flared his chakra with all the might of the professor, of the man once upon a time hailed as god of shinobi for his shinobi prowess, all the good those names did however, as he still couldn't move a single muscle, only managing to create a very strong breeze created by the clash of his chakra against Mikumi's, one that would have cracked and possibly destroyed a whole building, except this place was specially designed to resist such a force easily.

"Hiruzen, you're so naive and arrogant, you allowed that girl to place a cursed seal on you, and than you allowed her to connect her shadow to yours when you shook hands, all because you thought that your chakra alone would be enough to blow hers away and regain control. In your mind, you probably thought that pretending you didn't norice anything would give you an advantage when we made our move..." Hitomi trailed off with a slow, and painful looking shake of the head before continueing where she left off.

"However, this girl is a genius of the Nara clan and her chakra is especially strong to begin with, but, even more telling, is the fact that she is a pseudo-jinchuuriki with perfect control of the Hachibi's chakra. Yes, she only has a fraction of that chakra inside of her, and she can't go into a version two state or a full tailed beast transformation with the small fraction of the Hachibi that she has, however, even a fraction of the Hachibi's chakra is enough to bind Kage if the user is skilled enough. You were overconfident, Hiruzen, you were too arrogant for your own good..." Hitomi chastised.

"Orochimaru, are you just going to stand there and let them do this?" Hiruzen asked furiously.

"But of course, after all, this was all my idea." Orochimaru said with an evil smirk, causing Hiruzen's eyes to widen in horror.

"Orochimaru...!" The sandaime exclaimed angrily.

"You know, I bet you're wondering how it is that this girl has the eight-tail's chakra inside of her, or what it is that we plan to do to you. Well, let me explain a little, this story goes back a long time, to when the current jinchuuriki of the eight tails was only twelve years old..." Orochimaru trailed off, taking a small breathe before continueing where he left off.

"The eight tails broke lose from it's previous host and went on a rampage. But what most people don't know is that I was responsible for that little incident. I was the one that broke the eight tails out of Killer B's cousin. I did it partly for Konoha you know, the eight tails killed alot of Kumogakure shinobi and Kumo was further weakened by the fact that they lost their jinchuuriki, whom they had spent so many years trying to cultivate into their ultimate warrior, all that work gone to waste." Orochimaru said, shaking his head in mock sadness.

"Anyway, my other goal was to get at least part of that hachibi's chakra for my research, in fact, I wanted more than chakra, I wanted dna. So I waited as the raikage and his son fought the hachibi. Let me say that raikage and his son make a mean team of shinobi, I would hate to have to go up against even one of them. Anyway, the raikage's son, Yotsuki A managed to cleanly cut off one of the Hachibi's horns, and the raikage, can you believe it, managed to cleave off all eight of it's tails with one clean, swift, and clinical incision. That was quite impressive I tell you, you would have to see it with your own eyes to get what I'm saying." Orochimaru explained, taking another short breathe before carrying on with his tail.

"In any case, the eight tails was finally defeated and sealed away, however, there was chaos and disorganization in the ranks following that incident. So I managed to help myself to the horn and three tails out of the eight that were severed by the raikage. I have since gone on to seal the three tails into Mikumi-chan over there, and the horn inside of Hitomi-dono, all done specifically for this purpose, for this very day..." Orochimaru trailed off with a sinister undertone.

"Orochimaru, what exactly do you intend to do to me?" Hiruzen demanded to know.

"You're certainly asking alot of questions, if you're trying to buy time for yourself, than don't bother, nobody will have felt the chakra spike that you tried to send out earlier, this is a specially designed room, it is completely chakra signature proof." Orochimaru, causing a look of horror once again to appear on Hiruzen's face.

"You won't get away with this, Orochimaru, do you honestly think you can just make a Hokage disappear and no-one would notice?" Hiruzen asked.

"Who said anything about killing you, I told you I would make Hitomi-dono 54 years younger didn't I?" Orochimaru asked retorically, causing Hiruzen's eyes to widen in horror and realization.

"Yes well, anyway I really lied a little about Hitomi-dono turning 54 years younger, see, she's got a little cell replenishing technique of hers, accept, it reduces her lifespan drastically when she uses it, that makes it kind of pointless. What's the point of looking younger if that means you're going to die even quicker than you would have if you looked older right? Well, that's the thing, our plan is relatively simple. Hitomi-dono is going to use her mind transfer technique to copy each and every memory that you have, even the repressed ones into her mind, after all, she's going to need to know how to act exactly like you if she's going to be taking over your body." Orochimaru said with an evil look in his eyes, licking his bottom lip with his ridiculously long toungue, causing Hiruzen to turn as cold and white as a ghost.

"Following that, she will then go on to delete every memory from **your **mind, so that only she has a copy of it, and so that you're nothing but an empty vessel for her to occupy. When that is done, she will perform a cursed body switch technique with you. The original jutsu was meant to be temporary, and is meant to be used through a doll, where your mind is trapped in a doll while the user takes over your body. This jutsu has a time limit and eventually runs out. However, the one she will perform now is not just a mind swap, but a soul swap as well. Your empty mind, along with your soul will be transfered to her body, and hers into yours. She will essentially become Sarutobi Hiruzen." Orochimaru explained patiently.

"This is insane! Orochimaru, you will never get away with this. There is still time for you to change your mind, I will even give you a head start to leave the village and never return again. But if you go through with this..."

"Oh cut the crap already Hiruzen, this is happening and there is no stopping it. You will be transfered to this wrinkled old body that you hate so much, and I will get yours. Of course, at that point you won't even know what's happening as you will be nothing but an empty shell with no memories. You'll be like a baby, no memories, no ninjutsu, no self-awareness, no nothing. At that point, I will take remove the eight tails chakra sealed into this body, effectively killing this body along with you. I'll than seal the Hachibi's horn back into myself, in other words, into your body, and than, after making sure that you and my body are dead, we'll return the body back to my house, where it will be found tommorrow morning in bed, making it look like I died in my sleep of old age." Hitomi explained, taking a short break to revel at the horrified expression on that dispicable Hiruzen's face.

"I will than use my cell replenishing technique to make my new body, your body, twenty years younger, and than use life-force from the horn sealed inside of me to increase my life-span again. Essentially, I will become you at your prime. Following that, at next month's Fourth Hokage inauguration, I will announce my decision to go back into the field, and name Orochimaru the Fourth Hokage. I will also explain that part of the decision was thanks to him helping me regain my youth, thereby allowing one of Konoha's greatest shinobi to go back to the battlefield, thereby also increasing Konoha's chances in the war. This will make people much more receptive to Orochimaru's methods and it will cause people to endorse his unauthodox but brilliant human experimentation. It will make him a hero in the people's eyes. Together, we will take Konoha in a new direction, we will revolutionize the shinobi system. I will also be Orochimaru's body guard, along with Mikumi-chan. One of us will always be by his side, sometimes both of us, as we suspect there will be weeds that need plucking out, weeds that will try to snuff out the blossoming flower that is Orochimaru. Anyway, there is alot more to the plan than that, but that's all you need to know for now, it's time for your miserable life to come to an end, Hiruzen." Hitomi said with finality, almost as if she were a judge slamming her mallet against the podium.

**End Chapter**

**Guys tell me what you think? I hope yaw like it though, Naruto is about to have a rude awakening. He's about to find out that, while this world at first glance, seems like an exact mirror image of the one he came from, that things are actually significantly different. **

**Orochimaru is about to take over the village and seems intent on turning Konoha into an Oto-Konoha conglomerate. Minato will not be the Fourth Hokage, where does this leave him? And what will he do about it? Will he and Obito/Naruto find common ground in this crisis?**

**What of Kakashi, where does he now fit in, no sharingan=no kamui and now copy ninja, but what might he have done if this was how it went down in canon? Will he become weaker or even stronger? **

**Madara, Nagato, Yahiko, Konan, Zetsu? What is their destiny now? All these to be answered as the story progresses. Please be patient, and thanks for reading.**

**Oh yeah, Minato using the shinigami mask to split the Kyubi and sealing the yin inside of himself. Sure, he did this in canon too, but I'm sure you all recognise that the method, timing, and circumstance are all different in this alternate world. The people's personalities have not changed, but plans and knowledge have been altered slightly. Anyway, how big an impact this will have remains to be seen.**


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